With the near-inevitability of a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the opposition and their ‘friendly’ journalists are desperately trying every tactic at their disposal to influence the elections. In this vein, Bloomberg ‘columnist’ Andy Mukherjee has written an opinion piece in Bloomberg asserting that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) which have been used in elections since 2004 are “rightly” the next port of call for judicial scrutiny.
In view of the Supreme Court hearing scheduled on 16th April on a batch of pleas seeking cross-verification of the votes cast with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), Mukherjee in his article titled: India’s Voting Machines Are Raising Too Many Questions, argued that even though the tight polling schedule does not leave much scope for deeper reforms, “it would be dangerous to brand calls for change as Luddite or reject them on grounds of technical expediency.”
Interestingly, Andy Mukherjee and the anti-Modi ecosystem have never raised objections over EVMs in state elections where the Congress party or any other non-NDA party has emerged victorious. Be it Congress’s victory in Telangana or Himachal Pradesh, the ecosystem then wholeheartedly accepted and celebrated the ‘Janadesh’ but in elections where the public rejects the anti-BJP parties, the same ecosystem comprising politicians, ‘journalists’’’’, ‘analysts’, and YouTubers cry ‘EVM hacking’ to cover up their discomfiture.
Mukherjee, behaving like a true liege man of the I.N.D.I. Alliance, resorted to fear-mongering and asserted that a third term for PM Modi would result in a “further tilt towards divisive politics”. Mukherjee used PM Modi’s critical remark on Congress’s poll manifesto wherein he said that Congress party’s manifesto reflects the mindset of the Muslim League, to claim that the Hindu majority is being influenced by “messages of religious polarization”.
Mukherjee, however, did not delve into why PM Modi had made the Muslim League remark about Congress’s election manifesto. It is pertinent to mention here that PM Modi on 6th April said that Congress now has the same mindset that the Muslim league had during the time of partition. He emphasised that the rest of the Congress is dominated by the leftists.
“…the kind of manifesto released by Congress proves that today’s Congress is completely cut off from the hopes and aspirations of today’s India. The same thinking is reflected in the Congress manifesto which was there in the Muslim League during the freedom movement. The Congress manifesto completely bears the imprint of the Muslim League and whatever part of it is left is completely dominated by the leftists. Congress is nowhere to be seen in this,” PM Modi said in a public rally.
Notably, Congress which though has a history of Muslim appeasement for political gains, in its poll manifesto has literally decided to genuflect before the second-largest religious community in India.
Hinting at repealing the Triple Talaq Act, allowing personal laws to supersede uniformity and entertain the wearing of non-essential religious clothing in educational institutes under the garb of the Right to Freedom of Religion, promising to appoint more judges belonging to the Muslim community, to the High Courts and the Supreme Court are some of the key points in Congress manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha elections. In addition, The grand-old party has also suggested implementing the draconian Communal Violence Bill, which is aimed at disproportionately targeting the Hindu community. However, Andy Mukherjee and his ilk have no objection to this appeasement of Muslims and targeting of Hindus furthering rifts in the society since that does not suit his agenda.
Mukherjee who recently went on a blocking spree on X after his bizarre and divisive article claiming that the southern part of India ‘rejected’ Modi received obvious backlash on social media, this time again resorted to vilifying the North Indians. While making a case for ‘free and fair’ elections, Andy asserted that an “impoverished and overpopulated” North has “cheerleaders” for Modi as well as for drifting away from India’s secular and democratic constitution. And, that the North Indians have been filled with enmity towards Muslims. This is not only the mockery of North Indians but also raising questions over the wisdom of North Indians, particularly Hindu voters. Someone like Andy harbouring so much disdain for North Indians cannot be expected to find anything objectionable even when Congress leader DK Suresh saying that “South India will become a separate country”.
Interestingly, the anti-Modi ecosystem loves to accuse others of the crimes they committed. While Andy in his article mocked North India for being ‘impoverished’, it was the freight equalisation policies of the previous Congress governments that deprived North India of development at a significant scale when compared to the South. In February this year, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar said, “…from 1952 under the Congress till 1995, almost 40 years, the Congress government pursued a freight equalisation policy that made it absolutely no incentive for companies to invest in Jharkhand, to invest in Bihar, to invest in the north of India.”
When defeat is inevitable, blame EVMs, VVPAT and voters
Mukherjee while making a case for India to return to the paper ballot system, mentioned the cases of Germany, Estonia and the United States to say that even “Western democracies having flirted with technology, have mostly decided against surrendering the act of recording a citizen’s most profound political choice entirely to machines.”
Even though Mukherjee admitted that in the ballot paper era, booth capturing and vote hijacking were common, he is fine with pushing the country back in that era since the anti-Modi bloc has faint hope of defeating the Modi-mammoth in the Lok Sabha polls.
“Yet, the election equation still looks wobbly. There is considerable skepticism about whether people’s choices are being recorded fairly, and if they’re being counted right. Opposition parties are protesting,” the Bloomberg article reads.
It further quotes a speech of Congress prince and lifetime prime minister aspirant Rahul Gandhi in which he attacked PM Modi over EVMs saying “The King’s [Modi] soul is in the EVMs.” However, Rahul Gandhi did not say the same when his party won elections in Karnataka with the same EVMs, in Himachal Pradesh, Telangana or other states wherever it won since 2014. Will Andy Mukherjee dare to question Rahul Gandhi’s glaring hypocrisy or much like Gandhi opposing Modi alone matters even if that means making nonsensical arguments? The anti-Modi ecosystem’s blaming of EVM hacking and mischief with VVPATs reminds one of the popular Hindi idiom “Naach na jaane aangan tedha (a person with no skills blames other things).”
After advocating for a return to the paper ballot system, Mukherjee shifted his focus to VVPATs again insinuating that somehow the VVPAT machines can be tampered with. This, Andy suggested can be done when the program is entered during symbol loading. Unsurprisingly, Mukherjee presented no evidence to substantiate his claims but only the ‘opinion’ of a person known for his anti-Modi/BJP stand.
“Unseen by the voter, it also tells the controller unit what choice to record, something that should be done only by the ballot unit. And since these additional devices are programmed for each constituency before elections, they are no longer immune to potential outside influences.”
Mukherjee in the article mentioned former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan who although admitted not to having any evidence that EVMs can be hacked, questioned the role of VVPATs. It is pertinent to mention here that Gopinathan had resigned from the post of IAS Officer after the Modi government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2019, he attended a “Decade of Dignity” event organised by the radical Islamic student organisation Campus Front of India, whose parent organisation is now-banned the Popular Front of India (PFI).
Interestingly, while Mukherjee and the opposition parties including Congress have raised doubts over EVMs and VVPATs, it was the Congress government that on 14th August 2014 introduced Rules 49A and 49M of Conduct of Election Rules 1961 governing VVPAT and handling of paper slips.
The mere thought of PM Modi winning a rare third term is sending chills down the spine of Andy Mukherjee, the blatant fearmongering and vilification of PM Modi make it apparent. Contrary to Mukherjee’s assertion that PM Modi is only interested in lowering corporate tax and turning India into an unequal society, the Modi government has pulled out over 24.82 crore people from multi-dimensional poverty in the last nine years, reducing poverty from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23 i.e. a reduction of 17.89 percentage points.
Notably, Andy mentioned electoral bonds twice in the article to insinuate that somehow the ruling BJP has been exposed and it was fetching donations from corporates to evade harassment, he did not mention that 62.66 per cent of those donations went to opposition parties, including Congress and regional parties such as Trinamool Congress, DMK and BJD.
This absurdity of blaming EVMS, VVPATs and voters will continue for the Congress party or I.N.D.I. Alliance fails to dethrone Narendra Modi. However, much like it was seen in the case of electoral bonds wherein despite vehemently opposing the scheme, Congress and other opposition parties continued to accept donations, they will accept the poll results in state elections where they win and claim EVM hacking, VVPAT tampering where they lose.
Andy Mukherjee’s past articles reflecting his anti-India moorings
As OpIndia reported earlier, be it advocating for Chinese COVID vaccines or “losing hope in India”, Andy Mukherjee is known to write bizarre yet sinister articles reeking of his anti-India agenda. Back in 2022, Andy Mukherjee wrote a column arguing if India can overthrow Visa and Mastercard with its homegrown Rupay payment services. In his opinion piece, Andy asserted that Rupay must have an international approach instead of its current domestic-centric focus. However, while contending so, Mukherjee ironically also denigrated Rupay’s foreign tie-ups with Discover and Japan’s JCB International Co., stating that if the goal is to lower the nation’s reliance on foreign payment services, partnering with overseas companies is not a good solution.
In another article titled “India Shouldn’t Fall for Putin’s Rupees-for-Rubles Deal”, dated March 31, 2022, Andy Mukherjee made a case against India buying discounted Russian oil in rupees, contending that such a transactional relationship between Moscow and New Delhi could irk the West.
With ‘narrative setters’ like Andy Mukherjee, and Dhruv Rathee and the ‘friendly’ ecosystem, leading the propaganda front for Congress and I.N.D.I. Alliance it is highly unlikely that they would be able to secure as many seats as they did in the last elections (with or without blaming EVMs) rather also bolster the chances of PM Modi’s “Abki Baar 400 Paar” ambition.
